Paris's Mask Plan Is Worthy of the Surrealists
France’s alertness is commendable, but retaining public trust while enforcing messy face-mask rules will be a challenge.
People wearing a protective face mask queue at the entrance of the Louvre.
Photographer: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images
France’s experience of Covid-19 has been one of logistical public-service highs and infantilizing, bureaucratic lows.
Its springtime lockdown, one of the strictest in Europe, saved lives and protected overloaded hospitals but also punished people for leaving home without the right authorization form or jogging at the wrong hour. The government fretted about panic-buying so much that even purchases of nicotine patches were restricted. When President Emmanuel Macron’s administration began loosening curbs in May, the French mille-feuille of government red tape added a few more layers, with 101 plans for each one of France’s administrative departments.